Eternal Guardian Page 5

  This was the only place where he could be truly himself. Phoebe had watched over him here and longed to comfort him on so many occasions. She supposed it had, without her knowing, become her special sanctuary as wel.

  But she wasn’t sure if he would approve. “Is this al right?” He looked down at her, alowing her to slide down his large, hardening body, and he smiled. “Perfect.” He was that. Perfect. Scars, caluses and al. Max had lived, fought, and loved. He’d lived his life for family and friends. For Jesse. She worried again that she wouldn’t compare to the brave demigod. She wasn’t as tal, as voluptuous. She wasn’t as bold. But she wouldn’t attempt to change her form again. Phoebe wanted him to desire her, as she was, not an ilusion. These were not the sort of thoughts her kind were supposed to have. Perhaps she, too, had been compromised.

  Max seemed to see the doubt in her expression. The vulnerability. “You are the most beautiful, ethereal creature I’ve ever seen. Despite what you’ve said, what I’ve seen, I’m stil not entirely sure this is real, that you’re real…but I want you too much to care.”

  She lifted her hands at his words, drawn back irresistibly to his hot skin. He hissed, and she could sense his desire, his need for her. He was concerned at her size, concerned he would hurt her.

  That was the only thing holding him back. She didn’t want that. She wanted what she’d seen through her mirror of time. Fire. She wanted to burn.

  She took a quick breath. “You can’t hurt me. I’m an immortal. You don’t have to hold back with me. I want you. Al of you.”

  An expression close to pain crossed the strong planes of his handsome face. Then his large hands closed around her waist, lifting her until he could reach her mouth with his own.

  He didn’t hold back, his mouth claiming her, opening over her lips and demanding her submission. His tongue traced the seam of her mouth and she opened for him, instantly enchanted by his unique flavor.

  This was kissing. Sharing breath, life, intimacy. Feeling overwhelmed. Invaded. Yes. No wonder they did this so often on Earth. It was addicting. She wanted more.

  Her arms, trapped between them, slid up to wrap around his shoulders. Her body was desperate to fight his grip, to get closer. These feelings were so new. Powerful. They were almost frightening. She lifted her lips. “Please.” He understood. “Goddess, you taste like a dream, Phoebe.

  My dream. My Phoebe.”

  Max dropped to his knees, taking her with him. The rough stubble along his jaw scraped her skin as he left a blazing trail of kisses along her neck, her shoulder. She let him lay her down on the ground, enjoying the feeling of each blade of grass along her back, of his hands slipping down her hips, his fingers dragging her long skirt up until it bunched around her thighs.

  “Did you watch men do this to their women and wonder why? Wonder how it felt to have a man’s cock inside you?” His voice was almost too low to hear above the pounding in her ears, but she caught it. “I’ve had your mouth on me, sweet Phoebe. You know how it affected me. It’s my turn to return the favor.” His broad shoulders spread her legs wide as his head dropped between them. Phoebe arched her back in shock. He was kissing the inside of her thighs. Biting. She could feel the sharp Igigi teeth extending with his arousal, and she reveled in it. It proved, as if she needed more evidence, that she aroused him. The bite of an Igigi didn’t have the same effect as that of werewolves or vampires, but from what she’d observed, it felt indescribable.

  She wanted him to bite her as though she were human. As though she were one of them. Real and alive and impatient for every experience. Max’s tongue flicked the smal bud of her sex and she cried out in reaction.

  How could humans limited to their skin, limited in their understanding, feel so much and not burst apart? He’d hardly touched her and already she felt as though her body was made up of thousands of microscopic supernovas. He licked the lips of her damp sex with the flat of his tongue and she could feel the rough caress everywhere. Inside and out. Was this what he’d felt when she’d wrapped her mouth around his erection? Yes. She’d sensed the intensity of it. But no empathic awareness could have prepared her for this experience. Or for what he did next.

  His moan sent vibrations echoing through her limbs, and then his tongue stiffened, filing her, taking her in a kiss more intimate than the one he’d placed on her mouth. His tongue thrust hard, curving inside her as if reaching for her essence.

  She gripped his head, loving the feel of his long, dark hair sifting through her fingers. Loving him, as she had from the moment she’d first seen him. Loving him for what he was showing her now.

  The touch ignited him further, and he gripped her hips, puling her higher and harder against his mouth. His tongue deep inside her, deeper, harder, as though he couldn’t get enough of her taste. As though he wanted to make her come with just his mouth alone.

  Come.

  She could feel it, the strange, separate sensation. As though her spirit had separated from her physical form and exploded into a bilion points of blinding light. She was al of time and space. She was everything.

  Phoebe fel back into her sobbing, quaking body in time to realize he had lifted his mouth from between her legs. In time to see that his eyes had changed, filed up with the darkness of his need. In time to hear his throaty command.

  “More.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  More.

  A part of him knew he needed to slow down. To control the primal creature inside of him, the part of him that couldn’t pretend to be human. A gluttonous, ravenous beast that wanted to consume her until there was nothing left of either of them.

  But he knew any chance he had for tempering his need had long passed. With each of her reactions, with the revelation that his innocent angel had a fiery nature that was more than a match for his own, he lost his ability to hold back.

  The gods themselves could try to pul him away from her.

  That would be the only way to save them, because he no longer had the power. Her taste. Her smel. They were imprinted on him now.

  He would find her in any dimension. Any world. She was his.

  Igigi were not created to have mates. Not in the world he’d come from, anyway. It had taken a woman with the blood of a god to capture his cousin and brother in arms, Kittim. And it had taken Phoebe, in this place outside of time, to bring him to his knees.

  And that was what this was. It was the only way he could explain the intensity of it. The only thing he had to compare it to.

  And then he couldn’t explain a damn thing because his lust was too intense for him to think at al.

  He spun her over onto her knees and took the thin fabric of her dress in his hands. Between his thick fingers, the gossamer material shred easily, pooling beneath her on the ground and leaving her completely bare and open to his gaze.

  She was pale, not a freckle to distract from her translucently flawless flesh. The globes of her ass drew his hands and he squeezed, noticing as if from a distance that his palms nearly covered them completely. So soft. Smal. Fragile.

  “No,” she gasped at him over her shoulder. “Not. I’m not.

  Don’t stop, Max. Please.”

  As if he could. His arms easily reached up her torso, hands cupping the curve of her breasts, and he pinched her hard nipples between his thumb and forefinger as if in answer.

  She moaned, pushing her hips back against his leather-covered erection in response. Sweet Mother, she was as desperate as he was. He bent his head and tongued the line of her spine, drinking her in. Marking her. Fuck, he wanted to mark her. Wanted to claim her. Now.

  He flipped her over again, watching her damp curls tangle around her head on the grass. Watching her heavy-lidded eyes brighten with excitement and need as he reached for the buttons of his pants. He imagined either one of them could have made their clothing disappear. It was an ability even vampires had at their control, but he knew instinctively why he wouldn’t. She wanted to experience this. The seduction of it. The impatien
t waiting. The teasing. And he wanted her to. It kiled him, but he forced his hands to slow.

  She bit her lip so hard he knew she would taste blood. It made his incisors lengthen. He let her see his thoughts, how he would sink his teeth into her breast, how he would make her his as he filed her soaking sex with his cock.

  Can you see it, Phoebe? Can you see what I’m going to do to you?

  “Yes. Oh, yes.”

  Max snarled, letting her view the sharp fangs while he pushed the leather down past his thick, rigid erection. Her eyes went wide, but she didn’t look away. She didn’t stop him. He prayed to the gods, if they could hear him in this place, that she could take al of him. That his bite would have some effect on her here. Because he wasn’t going to be able to stop until he’d taken everything she had to give. Until he’d given her al of himself.

  He towered over her, bending his head until his mouth was hovering over one hard, pink nipple. Delicious.

  “Do it, Max. Bite me. Don’t make me beg.” Her breathless request was al he needed.

  He closed his eyes and sunk his teeth into her flesh, waiting for the taste of her blood to coat his tongue. What filed his mouth was unlike anything he’d ever tasted. Like water from the source.

  Like wine. Like light, pure and blinding, from the Legacy stone itself. Life. Pure life poured down his throat. Pure Phoebe.

  His cock pressed against her narrow opening and his other hand pushed her thigh as wide as it could go as he sought entrance.

  Let me in. I need…I need.

  Yes, Max. Come inside. Take me.

  She shouted his name out loud as his hips continued forward. Goddess, she was tight. Almost painfuly perfect. His.

  Yours. I’ve always been yours. I will always be…oh, yes!

  He started pumping his hips, at first slow and shalow, stretching her, readying her for the rest of him. But he couldn’t go slow.

  She wrapped her free leg high around his back, opening herself as much as she could to his invasion. Her fingernails curled into his biceps, demanding more despite her body’s natural resistance.

  Slow, Phoebe. Don’t push. Can’t hold back.

  Fuck me, warrior. Yes, fuck me as though you’ll die if you can’t.

  He would die. He was sure of it. Hearing such an innocent use those words… He puled back and with one mighty thrust powered deep inside her, a smal part of him fearing he would split her in two with the strength of it.

  She screamed, but only clung to him tighter, puled him closer. Perfect. She was perfect. A carnal rush of adrenaline beat through his body as he began to claim her as his own. Fast and hard. Deeper than he’d ever alowed himself to go, even with another Igigi. She was his. Made for him. She could take everything he had.

  He lifted his mouth to study her face. It was bathed in light, an expression of ecstasy as she tightened her sex around his cock, squeezing him, holding him deep inside her.

  Phoebe. Mine.

  He wanted to hold off. Wanted to keep fucking her. Never wanted to stop. But the more he wanted it the closer he came to climax. He heard her come again. Felt it. Saw the tears slipping down her cheeks as she came and lapped them off her skin before they disappeared into her hairline.

  He could smel the heather that bloomed on his favorite hilside mixing with the scent of nutmeg and apple blossoms and knew the scent would always bring him back to this moment. This passionate, earthshaking moment as he stiffened inside her, a roar emerging from deep in his chest as his release took hold. The deep, keening sound of longing formed into her name. Over and over.

  Phoebe. Phoebe. “Phoebe.”

  A haze blurred his vision and he buried his face in her neck, alowing her to soothe him with her own trembling hands. He was shaking. He felt weak, not a welcome or familiar sensation. But she had done this to him. She had brought the warrior in him to his knees.

  It was a dangerous feeling for him. One, Goddess forgive him, he already wanted to feel again.

  ***

  He awoke with her wrapped in his arms, her petite body completely encased in his embrace as if absorbing the natural heat of his body.

  Max looked around, studying the canopy of leaves that protected them from view, listening to the sound of birds arguing over a particularly coveted branch above them. Heaven. This is what he always assumed heaven would look like. Feel like.

  There was a new peace inside him, and it should have puzzled him. He stil wasn’t sure what was going on, wasn’t sure what tomorrow would bring. Yet he thought he could happily stay here forever…as long as Phoebe was in his arms.

  A glint of sunlight on the water drew his gaze toward the stream. The water looked good, and he gently extricated himself from her embrace, laying her gently in the grass before walking over to it. He knelt beside the briskly running water and reached down to scoop a handful to his lips.

  Right before his fingers dipped into the cool liquid, something changed. The water changed from running clear to a stil, reflective pool. He saw himself clearly, his expression changing from satisfaction to confusion. Then his image began to fade, replaced by the dark tunnels that were his last memory before he was swept away.

  He saw Liz, Zander and a dark-haired man with intense eyes. Was this Midnight? They were watching in horror as an older woman curled around Nicolette’s body and reached into her chest to tear her heart out.

  “No!” No one heard his cries. No one looked up to notice him, too focused on the pain of the moment. The darkness of the mad woman who’d snuffed out the life of the head of the Deva clan.

  The scene changed again and he saw the field in England between the Abbadon manor and the ruins of the Sariel’s underground safe house.

  Battle indeed. Greater than any Max had ever been involved in. Perhaps greater than the battle his father and Kit’s had waged against the Shadow Wolves and those they’d swayed to their side against Kit, the Sariels and Dydarrens.

  Truebloods and Weres were fighting for their lives and the lives of their mates against a deadly foe. But they were winning. He watched with pride as Lux caled the lightning, and Sylvain brought the earth to bear against her enemies. From a distance, her power was godlike.

  He saw the Unborn Hannah shift into a Were, Jasyn Dydarren standing proudly beside her as she attacked the nearest Shadow wolf. And Midnight…wel Midnight was an admirable warrior. Liz had found her match in him. Stil, they al struggled against the horde of enemies. They could have used another hand.

  Each hit that was taken, Max felt to his soul. He should have been there, shoulder to shoulder with Kit. Protecting the Moderator of the Truebloods, Zander, and his grathita. Doing what he was born to do, what the Igigi had vowed with heart and soul to do under the watchful blessing of the Great Mother. If he’d been destined to die, he would have died knowing he’d fulfiled his duty. Honored his father and the promise the Igigi leaders had made ages ago.

  The scene changed once more. He saw Kit and Jesse in the middle of a heated debate. A debate about him. Kit was stubbornly insisting Max would show up. He was a Sariel Guard, he wouldn’t have alowed himself to be dragged away. But Jesse disagreed. No one could sense him. The High Priestess Glynn Magriel had voiced her concern. Even the children, Alexei, Pax and Rhys, were in mourning for their beloved guardian. Kit just refused to face the truth.

  “He wil show up. You’l see. I would know if he were dead. I would know.”

  Max leaned closer to the realistic images, feeling the worry beneath Kit’s bluster. “I’m here. I’m alive.” But was he? As strong as the connection between him and Phoebe had been, this was not his world. Not his home. Not heaven and not hel. He was trapped in this place that shouldn’t exist. This place where nothing was real and nothing could be changed.

  He stood, reaching for his crumpled pants and dragging them on as he watched her sleep. She had brought him here before his timeline ended. She had, just like her missing counterpart, broken the rules. What frayed edges had come from that? Would they affect al
the people he loved? His family?

  As he turned to the reflection once more, he heard the faint screaming of the Rabasa. If what he was seeing was a doorway through time, those creatures surely blocked his way back. He was trapped here. Trapped in a paradise with a woman who felt and tasted like his. A woman who wanted him for something more than mere pleasure. But what?

  He regretfuly turned and headed down the hilside, searching for a way out of this ilusion and back to the temple’s hal.

  Jackass, Phoebe’s male companion, obviously wanted him to leave.

  If possible, Max wanted to help him grant his wish. The sooner he got back to his life, the better. Nothing they wanted from him could be more important than that. What good could he do his charges here? Watching with no ability to fix anything sounded worse than any fight Baal could have found for him.

  He wouldn’t think about the instantaneous pain he felt at the idea of leaving this woman he barely knew. Or how sure he’d been that she had been made just for him.

  This was not his life.

  He’d been walking for what seemed like hours through the empty mountain fields of his childhood home when he heard a familiar voice.

  “Lost, big guy?”

  He turned on his heel in shock. Jesse? He wasn’t dreaming this time, but he didn’t trust it. “Phoebe? Is that you again?”

  “Dad said you were here but I--oh thank goodness!” He saw her hair first. A deep red flame guiding him in her direction. As her curvaceous figure came in to view, Max frowned.

  “There is no need for this pretense.”

  She ran into his arms. No hesitation. Max wrapped his own around her and lifted her in the air with a laugh. She was solid. Real.

  “Who’s pretending? Can’t I be happy to see you? I begged Shalem to help us find out what happened to you. He brought me here.”